Visuals (Like Video) Get More People Reading (Watching) the News

It ends up that if news sites want more people reading, they're more likely to do so by having them watch instead. A recent study showed that visuals -- like video -- attracted repeat visitors to news sites over 70 percent of the time. Ends up the "pivot to video" does have some basis to it. Making the written news look like broadcast TV is one of many ways to attract eyeballs, and it also lends to different (more robust) ad opportunities as well.Your full rundown of mobile and online video ad industry happenings are below. See anything else we need to know about? Let us know.Marketers Need to Stop Looking at Mobile as a Channel. It’s a Lifestyle [Adweek]Mobile is not a channel. It is a fundamental part of our lifestyle. It’s how we communicate, how we spend time and, more and more, how we transact. And your customer’s journey? It’s not your journey, it’s theirs. You cannot force someone to go down a path that they don’t want to go down. As much as brands want all of their customers to start at the top of the funnel and go neatly swirling down the nurture stream into a conversion (or other business outcome), that’s just not how it works.What is the Right Response by Marketers to the Rise of Mobile Ad-Blocking? [Forbes]With the second option, it is no small task to make ads less terrible, as it requires cooperation from both publishers and advertisers. App publishers must understand exactly who is delivering ads on their sites. Is it just one ad network or many ad networks? When there are “more hands in the pot,” there are greater opportunities for bad ads and end-user frustration. However, there is hope in seeing new, better ad formats appearing.Viewers Favor Visuals in News Stories, Especially Millennials [MediaPost]Audiences are more likely to trust news stories with visuals, and return to news sites if they “regularly” incorporate visuals in their editorial, the study found. In fact, people are 71% more likely to return if the news sites use video or images, and 60% more likely to trust articles with visuals. When broken down by age brackets, those numbers go up to 82% and 71% for millennials, respectively.The Rise of Native Programmatic Advertising [HuffPost]On average, we spend about 5 hours on mobile (which is a 20% increase compared to Q4 in 2015), where we can receive everything from curated music playlists to ordering rides or food with a tap of your finger. Megan Pagliuca, Chief Data Officer at Hearts & Science states, “In the future, native will be the only ad format on mobile.” By 2021, worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to increase to 1.7 B, which is a difference of 230 M from the 1.47 B in 2016.These are the Retail Innovations Gen Z Craves [Business Insider]They use smartphones to shop by comparing prices, ordering online while in-store, looking up product reviews, and more. Gen Zers are probably always going to use their smartphones in-store, so retailers should try to work the technology into their shopping experiences. Retailers can introduce apps that facilitate Gen Z's smartphone shopping habits, or provide them with added value through augmented reality (AR), for example.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j2oh432RFYInside Walmart’s Advertising Blitz [Digiday]Walmart Exchange uses programmatic infrastructure combined with in-store sales data to target ads, through private marketplaces and ad exchanges. The retailer also offers display media across desktop, mobile and tablet as well as native ads within the shopping experience. There are also options for more traditional paid search and product listing ads, along with “audience extension” through Walmart co-branded ads. That means brands can target shopper behaviors through ads on and off Walmart.com. (Amazon began offering a similar program, “audience match,” in July.)Blast From the Past: Why Old Ad Fraud Tactics Won’t Die [Digiday]Video ad fraud is about twice as common as display ad fraud, according to DoubleVerify, which makes sense when you consider that ad dollars are pouring into video. Among the 100 largest digital publishers, display CPMs tend to run from $2 to $6, while video CPMs range from $12 to $20, according to an ad buyer requesting anonymity. Since video CPMs are higher than display, fraudsters disguise display inventory as video inventory so they can pocket the difference between the two.Facebook Says its Ad Transparency Features Will Go Live Next Month [TechCrunch]Now it’s releasing a few more details about its plans, like the fact that the new transparency features are expected to go live next month. Once they do, when you’re looking at a Facebook Page, you should be able to click “View Ads” and bring up all the ads that Page is currently running. (You can see an example of a View Ads page at the end of this post.)Twitter Boosts Transparency for Ads on its Platform [Business Insider]The update allows users to be more critical of Twitter’s advertisements. Users will be able to see the identity of any organization funding an ad on Twitter through the Transparency Center, and can further research the identity if a certain ad looks suspicious. This may help users identify ads that are credible or contain true information, as users would likely know to be cautious of an ad funded by an organization with no history in politics, for example.Facebook Tests Removing Publishers From News Feed, Unless They Pay [Mashable]Mobile Advertising Growth Keys Alphabet’s 24% Quarterly Revenue Rise [Deadline]iPhone Users Like Video More, Mobile Video Streaming Now Nearly 80% of Smartphone Data [Telecompetitor]Viacom Looks to U.S. Mobile Deals as Young Viewers Flee TV [Reuters]